QUANTUM EFFECTS IN THE HOT-ELECTRON MICROBOLOMETER

The theory of the hot electron microbolometer proposed by Nahum et al. assumed that the photon energy is thermalized in the electrons in the Cu absorber before relaxing to the lattice. Since the photons initial ly excite individual electrons to HBAR omega much greater than k(B)T, however, direct relaxation of these hot electrons to phonons must also be considered, Theoretical estimates suggest that this extra relaxati on channel increases the effective thermal conductance for HBAR omega much greater than k(B)T and influences bolometer noise, Calculations o f these effects are presented which predict very useful performance bo th for ground-based and space-based astronomical photometry at millime ter and submillimeter wavelengths.